Blogs

A teacher in a public school in southern California violated the constitutional separation between church and state when he condemned creationism as "superstitious nonsense", a court has found.Guardian commentator Andrew Brown concludes: "The result of this case... is that evolution becomes harder to teach, and creationism harder to mock, because science and atheism have become so entangled in the public mind."

The couple have just released an official statement confirming they have separated.

Whatever you think about the glamour model (real name Katie Price), her lewd antics and her pneumatic breasts, it is still a sad fact that her marriage of four years is over.

This is especially true as they have two children together: Junior, three, and one-year-old daughter Princess Tiáamii. And Jordan, who is halachically Jewish has another son, Harvey, six by footballer Dwight Yorke.

Shockingly bad coverage of the Pope's visit to Israel on the BBC. I've just watched the 5pm bulletin on News 24, and the reporter, Paul Wood, comment thus on Benedict's opening remarks:

For the Israeli government, these were unwelcome words. They don't want a two-state solution - a Palestinain state alongside Israel. The Pope does.

This from an expert correspondent? Can Mr Wood really not get his mind round the distinction between not publicly embracing an idea and being opposed to it? Formal acceptance of the idea of a two-state solution is simply being held in reserve by Netanyahu in return for...well, that's the real question.

We are, in case you need reminding, half way through 2009; it is 31 years since the Camp David agreement, close to 20 years since the Arab boycott of Israel officially ended and 16 years since Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn, leading - supposedly - to the normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

Yet how often does the phrase "Middle Eastern" in any kind of commercial context, actually include Israel, and how often is it a handy euphemism for "Arab nations", invariably excluding Israel.

This is always made very clear at the UK's main travel exhibition, World Travel Market, held each November - these days at ExCel in Docklands, but in former years at Earls Court. Whatever the venue, the "Middle East" invariably fails to include Israel; at last November's show, Israel was somewhere between Greece and Portugal in the North Hall sector entitled "Europe and Mediterranean", while all of its geographical neighbours were located in the South Hall sector named "Middle East and North Africa". The organizers of WTM may, of course, have placed Israel there on security grounds, possibly at the request of Israel.

I hold no brief for the Evening Standard under its old regime. But compared to the new look paper... The relentless froth and puffery is plain dull. I can't think of a single reason why anyone would buy it, rather than grab one of the freesheets.

London is laughing at this ludicrous campaign. Saying 'Sorry' for
the past smacks of a Soviet courtroom 'confession'. 'Sorry' has all the
hallmarks of a KGB-style smear campaign. It denigrates the judgment of
500,000 loyal readers who have been buying the paper in recent years.

New readers start here. A favourite catchphrase of the columnist Richard Littlejohn is "You couldn't make it up."

Much the same thought flickered briefly this morning as I listened to the long litany of excuses trotted out by MPs caught in the Telegraph's relentless spotlight over the parliamentary expenses scandal.

My absolute fave today was the Conservative woman (her name, mercifully, escapes me) who, having had the temerity to claim for dog food, now thinks that she's making things right by repaying the claim — a whole £4. This is not just chutzpah, this is 24-carat gold chutzpah. Like I said, A Littlejohn.

I have a piece in today's Times on the Pope's visit to Israel. You can read it here.

This is the conclusion:

If ever there was a case for avoiding public display and concentrating
on quiet activity, surely it is this. Instead of a visit that risks
inflaming already heated passions, far better to let the Pope’s future
deeds demonstrate that his actions to date have been an aberration.